A01=Noah Feldman
Al-Qaeda
Ancien Regime
Author_Noah Feldman
Ballot box
Cambridge University Press
Category=JPS
Category=NHG
Civil society
Coalition Provisional Authority
Collective security
Colonialism
Columbia Law School
Democracy
Democratization
Direct election
Election
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eq_society-politics
Ethics
Excellence
Experience
Fellow
Francisco de Vitoria
Freedom of speech
Governance
Great power
Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907
Harvard University
Ideology
Illiberal democracy
Imperialism
Institution
Insurgency
International law
Iraqis
Islamic Dawa Party
Islamism
Kurds
Lecture
Legitimacy (political)
Literature
Majoritarianism
Marshall Plan
Military occupation
Muqtada al-Sadr
Nation-building
National identity
Oxford University Press
Paternalism
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
Political science
Politician
Politics
Princeton University Press
Provisional government
Public lecture
Referendum
Representative democracy
Robert Nozick
Ruler
Security forces
Self-determination
Seminar
Sharia
Sovereignty
State-building
Superiority (short story)
Terrorism
The Iraqis (party)
United States
Veto
Voting
War
Wilsonianism
Yugoslavia
Product details
- ISBN 9780691126128
- Weight: 198g
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 02 Apr 2006
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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What do we owe Iraq? America is up to its neck in nation building--but the public debate, focused on getting the troops home, devotes little attention to why we are building a new Iraqi nation, what success would look like, or what principles should guide us. What We Owe Iraq sets out to shift the terms of the debate, acknowledging that we are nation building to protect ourselves while demanding that we put the interests of the people being governed--whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, or elsewhere--ahead of our own when we exercise power over them. Noah Feldman argues that to prevent nation building from turning into a paternalistic, colonialist charade, we urgently need a new, humbler approach. Nation builders should focus on providing security, without arrogantly claiming any special expertise in how successful nation-states should be made. Drawing on his personal experiences in Iraq as a constitutional adviser, Feldman offers enduring insights into the power dynamics between the American occupiers and the Iraqis, and tackles issues such as Iraqi elections, the prospect of successful democratization, and the way home. Elections do not end the occupier's responsibility.
Unless asked to leave, we must resist the temptation of a military pullout before a legitimately elected government can maintain order and govern effectively. But elections that create a legitimate democracy are also the only way a nation builder can put itself out of business and--eventually--send its troops home. Feldman's new afterword brings the Iraq story up-to-date since the book's original publication in 2004, and asks whether the United States has acted ethically in pushing the political process in Iraq while failing to control the security situation; it also revisits the question of when, and how, to withdraw.
Noah Feldman is Professor of Law at New York University and, in 2003, was Senior Constitutional Adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. He is the author of "After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003).
